A while ago this link to Hungarian Passport photographs crossed my path.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fekete-feher/albums
What is absolutely amazing about Flikr user mákvirág’s photo stream is the sheer number of historical photographs they have. Over 23,000 as of this writing covering not only Hungary but India, China, Lebanon, Morocco, Japan and Sweeden just to name a few.
Several of the galleries have descriptions and names of the people in the photographs as well and all are a pleasure to look at.
[1]Photo: Flickr user mákvirág, From Album – “Passport from Japan 1917-1918, pt. 2 – Photos from “Emergency Passport Applications, 1917-1918: US Consulate in Tokyo”” at https://flic.kr/p/Cuhfcy (accessed 10 Dec 2016)
While I have only viewed some of the images, many of them seem to be courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration and I don’t see a great way to search them (though I am not a Flickr user and that may make a difference.
I’d love to know if you locate one of your relatives in these photos. Leave a comment below if you do!
*** Addition ***
After posting the link in this article, I was contacted via the comments (read in full below,) by the author himself, Louis Takács aka mákvirág. Among other insights, he let us know that the images are indexed on Ancestry.com. There is another way to search through the images.
Unfortunately, searching for names/terms is a bit tricky. You have to open another URL:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=64267112%40N03&text=
and add your search term (surname, village name, etc.) in the search box. Flickr no longer provides a direct link in the interface.
Thank you Louis for the fantastic updates.
Notes
1. | ↑ | Photo: Flickr user mákvirág, From Album – “Passport from Japan 1917-1918, pt. 2 – Photos from “Emergency Passport Applications, 1917-1918: US Consulate in Tokyo”” at https://flic.kr/p/Cuhfcy (accessed 10 Dec 2016) |
That image is adorable. Is that a “passport” photo? They don’t make ’em like that anymore. To bad!
Hi there. I am “mákvirág” and I thank you for picking up my flickr site! However, I think you are missing an “s” in the URL you provided, so you might want to replace with https://www.flickr.com/photos/fekete-feher/albums
It’s a long story but the collection is a work in progress I started on about two years ago as more of a visual rather than genealogical tool. Names have already been indexed on Ancestry.com so I focused more on the portraits themselves…many of which I find stunning. I have, however, added brief biographical info to more than 1000 of the images, e.g. Hungary, and plan on adding more.
I extracted the photos from U.S. passport applications submitted mostly by “new” US citizens, circa 1914-1925. The applications were made at US Consulates around the world, so that allowed me to more easily group people by nationality/ethnicity. The original applications are indeed kept by NARA.
FYI I’ve re-edited many of the images to help sharpen the gaze…without sacrificing original authenticity.
Unfortunately, searching for names/terms is a bit tricky. You have to open another URL:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=64267112%40N03&text=
and add your search term (surname, village name, etc.) in the search box. Flickr no longer provides a direct link in the interface.
Again, all of the names have been indexed on Ancestry.com so if you don’t don’t find a name there you most likely won’t find it in these Flickr collections.
Enjoy!
Thank you so much for the update and search tips. I will add these direct to the blog post in a short while. As a photographer myself I find some of these images just stunning and having a visual genealogy tool such as this is amazing. May I ask, did you start this project because you found an ancestor in the photographs, were you looking for someone that you had yet to find, or some other reason completely?
Thanks, Dan! My motivation basically comes from a keen interest in visual culture, especially from this time period (1914-1925) and doubly so when it comes to “immigrant photography”.
Several people have informed me that they did indeed find ancestors/relatives in the collections, which I was very happy to hear. I myself haven’t found any, but the more I searched the more I found the visual pull of the photos too strong to not try to do something with them. I’m currently working on a paper that will hopefully help contextualize the images.